a heart. to woo or to tell the one you love quite how much. Now Willie Shakespeare is one of our most borrowed bards of love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning a favourite with the ladies and old Andrew Marvel coined the ‘getting your leg over' verse (“Had we but World enough, and Time/ This coyness Lady were no crime' — but we don‘t so come on. let '3 go to bed).

And as good and touching as all these are, they're old. We've

heard them all before — yeah yeah, I'm more lovely and more

temperate than a summer's day.

The Scottish Poetry Library has come up with a 21st century solution. It has commissioned six of Scotland's poets to write a short love poem which can be texted anonymously to the object of your affections. They range from a Marvelesque 'I want you now' ode from Tom Leonard to characteristically tender and passionate lines from Edwin Morgan, while Elspeth Murray's 14 modest words

are full of warmth.

Texting (for better or worse) is undoubtedly the new medium of love and SPL is canny to tap into it. Coinciding with its 20th anniversary celebrations. the initiative marks a shift in direction as it increases efforts to promote poetry as a cutting edge art form. To find out details of how to text your poem see page 123 or visit

www.spl.org.uk. u cd do ws.

by Scotland’s top

ONE TWG THREE FOUR suddenly Quietly, amid Keeping and Kiss me with spring - the rush-hour forgetting time, rain on your my heart and bustle, l blush. I my pulse to eyelashes, the river smile just your pulse, come on, let us full to bursting thinking of you. rhythm and sway together Alan Spence Elspeth Murray rhyme under the trees, Gael Tumbu/I and to hell with thunder. Edwin Morgan

Edinburgh’s first cannabis cafe has opened - but it’s a smoke-free zone. Words: Ruth Hedges

o junkies. jaikies or radges allowedlll' It's on the membership form for the UK's first cannabis cafe, Purple Haze. which opened in Leith at the end of January. It's also a statement of intent.

Paul Stewart has set up the cafe which looks like most greaSy spoons — apart from the hemp burger mix and various magic mushroom varieties on sale. On the opening night he'd hoped to get out the Monopoly boards and chill out but a frenzy of press interest and three arrests scuppered the plans.

The Current law and reclassification of cannabis from B to C has not actually taken effect in Scotland. And so members of the Evening ‘No' Smoking Club are running the risk of being charged. The paradox of a no-smoking cannabis cafe is explained by Stewart with the fact that a quarter of deaths in Scotland are smoking-related.

He wants to do this right. ‘We want to keep the criminals out.’ he says. As the rules state:

‘Strictly no hard drugs. dealing, gossiping etc.‘

Because of our country's strange drug policy.

it is OK for Paul to put up a poster advertising hallucinogenic Mexican Gold Cap Mushrooms. but the tobacco-free cannabis thing remaiins illegal. It‘s all a bit of a purple haze.

I Unlikely as it may seem, Brett Anderson may be collaborating again with former Suede partner Bernard Butler. a ‘source' has reported. Ex-Longpigs and former Pulp man Richard Hawley is in tow . . . Whether any release from those lads will revolutionise music is in doubt. But Scott Scorch reckons that the record he's working on with co-producer Dr Dre will be the most advanced rap release ever. . . Kelly Osbourne is putting off her efforts to make sonic history by launching her acting career in a drama series entitled Doing It. She will play the love interest of a 16-year-old sexed—up Seattle lad . . . More naughty boys are being lined up for hard labour as lTV looks for 30 young men to star in a documentary series entitled Bad Lads Army. If you’re bad and a lad and want to be knocked into National Service-style shape. call 0207 2841441... Face of 2004 Scarlett Johansson is set to team up with Josh Hartnett and Mark Wahlberg for The Black Dahlia, a portrayal of the notorious 1947 murder mystery. Brian De Palma wields the clapperboard.

GILLIAN PURVIS, 1970-2004 We would like to express our sorrow at the death of Gillian Purvis. Aged 33, Gillian died from injuries sustained by smoke inhalation after she was rescued from a fire in Maryhill. Due to an inquiry into the cause of the fire, there will be no funeral until April, but a memorial service is to be held in Dunblane on Saturday. Gillian, who worked in the marketing department at the SECC, had a particular interest in fashion design and her family plans to set up a trust in Gillian’s name, aiming to benefit fashion and textile design students.